Introduction:
Having a glacier in a tropical rainforest environment is very rare – but New Zealand has two “easily” accessible: Franz Joseph and Fox glaciers.
The aim of this tour is to bring you on Fox, thanks to a short helicopter flight. Expect a bit less than 3hrs on it, with a 4 minutes helicopter flight for the Heli-hike. They also do longer trips (such as full day ice climbing); and I’ve met other tourists that loved it.

First, it was an amazing experience, and I think it’s worth the bucks (NZD450). I was lucky enough to have amazing weather – but they do have a full refund policy if the tour has to be canceled. Hiking on a glacier is an incredible experience – especially one so accessible.

Experience and professionalism:
I found the company really professional. Website is easy, they quickly reply to emails and phone calls and it’s really well organized once on site (no wait!! and they speak several languages). Our guide, Sarah from Canada, was passionate by her job and amazing. All guides are really well ttained. All needed gear is provided; and they even have Chinese speaking guides.
However, there were 10 people with one guide which I found was too much and slowed down a bit the pace. We still saw a lot though, and had time to take as much pictures as we wanted (which is necessary for photographers like me ;))
It’s physically accessible to almost anyone as long as you can walk normally.

What to expect?
A return 4 minutes helicopter flight that brings you to the base they made on the glacier, where crampons will be provided. Flight is cool and impressive
2h45 on the glacier, to observe and maybe go through ice caves, blue lake, holes and crevasses, etc. The blue-ish colors are amazing, as well as the scale and shape of the ice. The whole area is fantastic, and quickly moving.

Finally, I would recommend Fox over Franz Joseph: Fox glacier has more altitude change which creates even more breathtaking ice shapes (caves, tunnels and stuff).

Conclusion:
To conclude, I loved the experience and I highly recommend it. I think the 4-hours tour is enough to have a really good and quite deep overview of what a glacier is: breathtaking!!
Fox Glacier Guiding are the people to go with: very professional and I never heard a bad review from locals either (asked in several hotels around).